Interior Refresh

[medazzling]

Hi
I was thinking about giving my linen/black piping interior a freshen up and would be interested in any thoughts, guidance or experience.

Its in reasonable condition for its age, I am not looking to do a complete refit, I ideally want to keep its age and smell, but with linen coloured carpets and leather I feel there is probably a way to freshen this without silly cost and keeping its patina, so not replacing items generally. Perhaps getting the carpets steam cleaned and reconolising the leather and getting the original colour back? The door cards could also probably be lifted with some specialist help rather than replace complete. I hope my question and description makes sense.

The head lining is slightly tired, so perhaps I should replace this but again I welcome thoughts.

I live NW London if there are any recommendations people could give from experiences, likely costs etc. Keeping to the 3.2 forum initially but obviously this discussion could well be applicable outside of our 911 beauties.

Thanks in advance
Darren

 

[rhyde]

Hi Darren
As far as the carpets go I cleaned and groomed my carpets when I had a refurbishment of my Targa in 2016. Crispin at 911 triple R in Wembley took them out for me while he worked on the shell. I just put the smaller items through my own domestic washing machine being careful to place any fragile looking ones into zip up mesh bags. The larger items I took to a local self service laundry in the evening so as not to annoy any other users as I needed to use two or three machines. My carpets were the velour type so that allowed me to groome each carpet with a pet style grooming comb. I found the fine stainless steel strait tooth comb most effective. It’s rather laborious but very effective. I carried that out over a few weeks just doing a little at a time and several times over. I have to say it was worth all the effort as they came upfantastically well especially considering they are now over 32 years old. I also purchased some original style backing from Southbound Trimmers in case I needed to refresh any of the backing, I didn’t so I am hanging on to that for any future repairs that may be needed.


I also cleaned up the rear seats and side linings just with soft soap and water being careful not to over saturate. My experience is that with plastics and it’s derivatives I have always found that NOT using products gives a better result since you don’t want to add a layer of film on top. Unless of course you are trying to cover up minor scuffs and imperfections in which case carefully selected stains and colourants may help (leather shoe dyes if they are close enough may even be useful but test out first!). But if it’s serious damage a good leather or upholsterer is probably the sensible route for that. I could look out the details of the chap I used to Repair my red piping On the drivers seat if you are interested. Or southbound Trimmers but they usually have a long waiting list. I waited nearly a year to get my Targa Top done but they are among the best in my opinion. In areas that are not likely to come into contact with clothing dependant on colour I have successfully used some shoe polishes but you have to be careful and selective. I could add mor but I see this response is already very long,
happy to chat with you if it helps. I have added a few shots from my rebuild just Out of interes
best regards
Robin

 

[rhyde]

Also

 

[rhyde]

And

 

[medazzling]

Hi Robin
Thanks you very much for taking the time to give your story and findings, encouraging to hear how things came up with fairly basic work. i have soe time of work coming up so maybe i will pick and day and do some initial test work to see how this works.

looks like an amazing job you are doing on the Targa, arguably better than when it was new! Crispin has done some work for me in the past and I was very happy with his approach and work.

i welcome any other comments if people have founds solutions or companies in this field

Regards